Sunday, August 31, 2008
Quick, A+E, Movies, Q&A
Regular Guy
Guy Pearce on his new film, his career and the Hollywood star system
Courtesy of Overture Films
Guy Pearce in “Traitor”
“TRAITOR”
Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Rated PG-13
Wide release
By Bert Osborne
To a gallery of screen characters that already runs an impressive gamut from the Count of Monte Cristo (in the 2002 Disney movie of the same name) to Andy Warhol (in the 2006 indie "Factory Girl"), Aussie actor Guy Pearce now adds an intrepid FBI agent (and Southern Baptist preacher’s son) on the trail of Don Cheadle’s suspected terrorist (and devout Muslim) in the globe-trotting espionage thriller "Traitor." Best known for his performances in "L.A. Confidential" (1997) and "Memento" (2000)—if not for his breakthrough role as a Down Under drag queen in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" (1994)—the 40-year-old Pearce spoke about his new movie during a recent interview in New York.
Q There’s a real chameleon-like quality to a lot of the characters you’ve played. Is that by design? Is there such a thing as an ideal Guy Pearce role?
A No, I don’t think there is, really. I can’t even imagine what that might be. It feels like it would somehow be too limiting in a way. What’s ideal for me is being able to constantly venture into different situations and emotional states and walks of life. That’s what I find fascinating, staying open to new things. That’s how I respond to scripts I read. Choosing projects is a very intuitive thing for me. I really have to feel that, because otherwise acting becomes just about faking it.
What appealed to you about this character in "Traitor"?
In this case, I probably responded more to the overall story than just to my character. I’m always weighing a number of things when I take on a film. Clearly, this script was well-written and the character was quite well-drawn. I liked how this movie looks at the idea of taking a minute to try understanding what’s happening on the other side of the fence, so to speak, particularly in this day and age, when the first instinct most of us have is to fear what’s going on, you know? Even though a lot of it functions as a thriller or an action movie, I liked the subtle way in which we get to see the connection between my character and Don’s. They’re both men of faith. On some level, there’s no real difference between them.
The movie deals with a very real issue like terrorism, but it also functions as an entertaining action thriller. How hard is it to engage the audience without exploiting the subject matter?
I think it does a good job of tapping into a subject that’s fairly confronting, trying to understand the situation and deal with it in a real way, but placing the story into a style of conventional filmmaking that’s accessible and palatable. … I think the movie strikes just the right balance. You can appreciate it as an exciting movie, but you’re still able to walk away from it really thinking about the subject matter. There’s a credible sense of reality to the movie, and it takes a smart and unusual point of view that perhaps you wouldn’t get from a standard Hollywood studio picture.
You’ve made a few of those mainstream studio movies, but you’ve done most of your work in eccentric indie projects like "Memento," "The Proposition" and "Factory Girl."
Yeah, Hollywood definitely operates on a particular frequency that I find a bit tricky to deal with. When people are mostly worried about covering their $100 million investment or whatever, that makes them behave in certain ways and take a certain approach to the work. When you’ve only got a small fraction of that to work with on an independent film, when you have to be really creative to come up with ways to make the movie, that’s the sort of work environment I’m more drawn to. I’m not in this to promote a career or turn myself into a big movie star, necessarily. I mean, I’m aware that you need a little bit of that in order to keep working, but I’m rather uncomfortable with it, just generally speaking. … Listen, if I got offered some really good Hollywood projects, I’d probably do them. There are some great studio films, of course, but let’s face it, I’m not the person they’re offering those to. Most of them are going to Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt [laughs]. SP